House delves into bill shifting spring elections to fall

Tim Carpenter

Wednesday

Mar 11, 2015 at 2:28 PM

The Kansas Republican Party argued Wednesday the House should modify a bill to shift the spring local elections to the fall and require candidates to declare a partisan affiliation on ballots to increase voter turnout.

In the same House Elections Committee meeting, representatives of elective city and county governments, school boards, community college boards and other entities requested legislators maintain the status quo.

"We believe in the goal of making the elections process more fair and inclusive," said Clay Barker, executive director of the state GOP. "Many Kansans lead very busy lives, so doing what we can to make it easier to vote in their local elections is a good result."

Whitney Damron, representing the city of Topeka, said legislators should reject Senate Bill 171 and leave municipal elections as nonpartisan affairs that operate outside the fall election crossfire of advertisements, direct mailers and influence of political action committees.

"If the local citizenry wanted to make changes," he said, "they could request their elected officials to do so."

Under the bill adopted by the Senate and under consideration by the House committee, all municipal elections typically called in March or April would be on fall ballots in odd-numbered years. These contests would retain current nonpartisan status. Bond issue or tax increase elections for cities, counties and school districts must be held in conjunction with a primary or general election.

The Senate version required all public school districts to make buildings available as polling places, but elections officers must give school officials a 365-day advance notice on the need for a building. Individuals 16 to 18 years of age can serve as election workers, but no more than one-third of an election board can be composed of minors.

Salina city manager Jason Gage said shifting elections to the fall in odd-numbered years was more appealing than creating a bigger ballot in even-year elections, but he would prefer retention of the spring election cycle.

"We ask you to preserve the nonpartisan nature of municipal elections due to the fact that most of our small and medium-sized cities do not experience the type of negative politics and partisanship that often occur at the state or federal levels," Gage said. "A city’s primary mission is simply to effectively and efficiently deliver core, essential services to the public’s front doorstep. This mission doesn’t typically lend itself to partisan or ideological debates."

Walt Chapell, a former member of the Kansas State Board of Education, said he agreed with the idea of avoiding partisan races in municipal elections.

However, he said the state must conduct elections in the fall to improve turnout. He said the April 2013 election attracted 6.2 percent of 247,000 registered voters. Turnout in November 2012 for Wichita City Council races topped 67 percent.

"If Kansas is ever going to go back to representative democracy," Chapell said, "we must make it possible for more registered voters to participate. This means holding elections for all local, county, state and national offices in November in even years."

Jamie Shew, Douglas County clerk and president of the Kansas County Clerks and Election Officials Association, said the organization was opposed to collapsing fall and spring elections into a single even-year event.

Shew said such a move would create multi-page ballots and increase the number of ballots to accommodate various races.

"The August even-year primary, especially with nonpartisan local offices, triples the amount of ballots in each polling place and drives up costs for conducting our most expensive election," he said.

Stacia Long, the Seward County clerk, said combining elections in the fall would produce lengthy ballots in Seward County, which is among four in Kansas required to print ballots and election material in English and Spanish. The extended ballots resulting from addition of more political races will create longer lines in the fall, she said.

"I am concerned that many voters may actually choose to not vote if they are required to wait too long," she said.

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